Winter 2014-2015

Hi everyone!  I can't believe I haven't posted anything for over a year!  Where did that time go?  This winter has been so unbelievable.  I live south of Boston and we have been hammered with snow, breaking all kinds of records including lowest temperatures.  The other day was around 32 and it felt warm!  Today is below zero and wind chill even lower.  At least this year with all the blizzards and storms, we did not lose power.  The real danger this year is the weight of the snow on the roof.  A lot of roofs have collapsed.  We hired a roofer to shovel off the snow and thought he would do the ice dams too but he said they were too bad and he couldn't touch them for the price he quoted; then he mentioned a price he would charge and I could probably replace the roof for that so he just shoveled.  My grandson came over a couple of times chipping away at ice over my bedroom window in the back of the house.  Water was leaking in around the frame of the window and my carpet was wet.  I had to keep putting towels down and changing them to dry the carpet.  At least, since he chipped out most of that area, the leaks stopped.  I think this summer I am going to put my house on the market.  It is way too big for one person and it's double duty for my son-in-law and grandsons to take care of their property and mine too.  Plus his parents are older than me and live across the street from me so he goes over there to help out too.   I am going to add some pictures of our snow for your enjoyment (LOL).  Well, I'll add pictures later.  Having problems uploading them right now.

Well, watercolor classes have ended, but Betty and Nick have been coming to my house a couple of times a week to work on paintings.  This is my latest.  I did it first using a blue/green mix for the background.

I loved the baby, but felt like they didn't stand out enough.  The picture that inspired me to try this had a vey dark, black background and I felt like they needed the darkness to really stand out - so - I changed the background color and added a few shadows and got this one....

I think once I put a mat around it that it will look okay, but still I may try it again and make a better background.  We'll see how it goes.

Hi everyone, we are still in our Watercolor Mode - here is one that my Grandson did!  He doesn't want to do the same as everyone else, or the same colors so he did his own thing and I really like it.

 

My daughter and I decided to try painting some lilies.  One of her friends had posted this picture to Facebook and she really liked it so we decided to try it.

The first one is hers:

This one is mine:

I really like the softness she got with the colors and the highlights.  I wasn't happy with mine so I played with it a bit more and like it more now.  I didn't get a picture of the touched-up one but this gives you the idea.

We also did some ocean scenes.  I did the same one twice, using different colors in the water.  Which one do you like the best?

The first one was done in class and I was happy with it:

The next one was done at home while my grandson was trying one.  He wanted to use green for the water and it looked pretty interesting so I added some greens to my blue water and this is what I got:

I guess I didn't take a picture of the finished painting, I added color to the sails and put some seagulls in too.  But you can see the difference in the water.

What do you think?

 

Hi everyone,    well we've had a couple more watercolor classes.  We are learning all kinds of techniques.  Some I like, some I don't - LOL

Here is the latest painting we are working on - not done yet, still have to darken the sand area and work on the boat.  I do like how this one is turning out.

 

 

 

Now let me see if I can find the Gerber Daisies.   I like this one too!

 

One more that I am not really crazy about but will try it again to see if I can refine it a bit - another floral but this time a white flower with shadows.....  Hmmmm can't find that picture, will have to take another and post it later.



This past winter was the craziest winter I can ever remember!  With the storms, not only in my area, but nationwide.  The tornadoes, floods, any kind of natural disaster you can imagine.  One day it's very warm, 60 or 70 degrees, then the next day it's freezing!  Mother Nature sure seems to be angry with us for some reason. 

This is Memorial Day Weekend and we have been in the 40's a couple of days.  Today is better, it's warming up with occasional windy gusts.  Nice and sunny though.  The past couple of days have been drizzly, cold and miserable.

We really can't complain too much around here.  It seems like we have dodged most of the severe weather.  We did lose power during "Sandy" and it was out for about 4 days.  I have never been so cold in my whole life - bone-chilling cold.  Thank goodness for my son-in-law David who bought a generator after last winter.  They came over and got me and my kitty and let us stay with them until power was restored.

He is really a great guy.  After their power came back on he and their sons took the generator to a friend to let them use until the power was restored.  They were so happy to get some heat and be able to shower.

Hopefully Mother Nature will settle down and the coming winter will be "normal" - LOL, whatever "normal" is......

White Birches Watercolor

Good Morning to everyone!  My daughter and I have signed up for a watercolor class and we absolutely love it!  I finished my first painting - not perfect - but I am proud of it and plan on framing it and hanging it on my wall.  Here is the picture - what do you think?

A friend asked me to do a set of placemats for her.  She picked out the fabrics and asked me to make them reversible.  She also requested the "diamond" quilting.  To her that looked like what she felt quilting should be.  So, here is the results.  Since the fabric had gold designs throughout, I used gold embroidery thread for the quilting.   She LOVED it and so did I.   What do you think?  One side is the red pointsettias, the other side is the holly & berries.

I've finished up Tablerunners and Pillow Cases.  Still working on embroidered towels.
I've actually bought a new embroidery/sewing machine and haven't unpacked it yet.  I want to finish the projects in the works right now before I get side-tracked with something else.   I will do my best to post again before the holiday, but just in case, let me say it now:   MERRY CHRISTMAS!